I don't know what to do with all my anger.

No, not for Vice President.  I nominate her to be the new host of Meet the Press.  Since nobody seems to be talking about it, except Katha Pollitt who suggested her on C-Span's In Depth, when asked if she thought a woman should take the historic seat, I thought I would open the subject up for discussion.

Today, it's actual audio of John McCain at Sturgis:

After the cut: Joe Lieberman on Meet The Press, and John McCain tackles race.

In a past diary I could not bring myself to write the name of the "Independent Democrat" from Connecticut. Re-reading that entry I was struck by the decision. Then Sunday morning, I saw Joe on Meet the Press ("Me Dee Pressed" after the show sometimes, Sunday no exception) and I had a similar reaction. I found myself shaking my head whenever Joe spoke, cursing at the TV, surprised at the depth of my contempt for the man. How can a man who knows not the meaning of loyalty--one of your basic components of character--lecture us on his judgement of McCain's character? How could've Gore been sooo wrong?

It wouldn't surprise me if I learned tomorrow that he "threw" the VP debate to Cheney back in 2000. You laugh, but he did smile whenever Cheney scored a point, remember, that same smile I saw this past Sunday whenever he tried selling us another four years of misery.

What's wrong with this man?

John McCain's attack ads were a topic of the Sunday blab fests. They were a study in contrasts between McCain's surrogates and honest folk. Here are two such, first from Meet The Press:

MR. BROKAW: Senator Lieberman, let me just share with you and with our audience as well what Senator McCain had to say earlier about the tone of the campaign.

(Videotape, April 14, 2008):

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): This will be a respectful campaign. Americans want a respectful campaign.

They're tired of the attacks. They're tired of the impugning people's character and integrity. They want a respectful campaign, and, and I, and I am of the firm belief that they'll get it and that they can get it if the American people demand it and reject a lot of this negative stuff that goes on.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW: And just this past week you said to the Palm Beach Post, "There's a problem in Washington. That problem is partisanship, grown people going to Washington acting like children having a mud fight." Do you think running a campaign ad in which you feature Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with Barack Obama is respectful?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I do.

Lieberman also conceded that of course McCain's strategy is to make Obama seem scary:

I want to say just a word about the, the racial question here. And I, I speak personally. In the first place, the McCain campaign is, to use Barack Obama's words, raising the question 'Is he a risky guy?'.

Lieberman then went on to explain that in this instance it's a good kind of scare-mongering. By contrast, here is David Gergen on This Week rebutting Jake Tapper, who had asserted that "McCain hasn't done" any racial attacks. Emphasis is by Gergen:

Gergen: I think that Donna's got a point here. Everybody knows he's black, but there has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream - other. He's not one of us.

Stephanopoulos: Mostly below the radar screen.

Gergen: It's below the radar screen. I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it. But it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows it. And when they send...there are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you when you see the Charlton Heston ad, the "One", that's code for "He's uppity. He oughta stay in his place." You know, we...everybody gets that who's from, you know, a southern background, we all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, "I'm against quotas," we get what that's about. We understand where that's coming from.

George Will: He was asked!

Gergen: I understand that, but I'm just telling you that gets across. And so it's not unfair for him to sort of bring up the fact, "Hey everybody knows I'm black. Let me talk about it."

Since everybody's still talking about McCain's attack ads, one more time just for the sake of emphasis: It was John McCain's own attack ad from June that put Obama's face on the 100 dollar bill. And yet, somehow, while refusing to mention this basic fact the traditional media has helped to convince half of the country that Obama was being racist simply by referring in passing to McCain's obnoxious ad.

    This morning's MTP had Kerry and Lieberman arguing on behalf of Obama and McCain.  Tom Brokaw started with the McCain's attacks ads on Obama, and then -- presumably to show "balance," revisited that infamous Clark statement  in which Clark responded that being shot did not qualify someone to be president.  Kerry failed to stand up for Clark, and what steamed me is that Brokaw took Clark's answer straight out of context without showing Bob Schieffer's question, which specifically had asked Clark how he could question someone's qualification when McCain had been shot down in a plane.

    I have to ask how come Clark is being attacked again for this "coincidentally" just after a week in which he has once again been rumored as a VP pick, and when a website has started a petition drive to put Clark on the ticket.  

Follow me below the fold and let's explore this issue.  First here' the link to the MTP interview.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Then, here's how the controversy started:

Just a short diary this time.

It seems just hanging around McCain is enough to make you start gaffing. On Meet the Press this morning, Joe Liebermann made a reference to "Al Qaeda in Iran". It remains to be seen how much contact is required for infection - let's face it, Liebermann spends more time with McCain than Cindy does.

Kudos to John Kerry though, when confronted with Joe's sickening line that the surge proves McCain has better judgement he reeled of the hit-list of pre-surge misjudgements: repeating the WMD and terrorism claims to win support, repeating the "greeted as liberators" meme to win support, claiming the war was over and we'd be out of the country in mid-2003 etc. etc. etc. etc. Joe was only able to come back with "but the surge worked", which Kerry also made an effort to rebut, although less convincingly.

UPDATE: Thanks to DiegoUK for the link to the video. The gaffe is 25m45 seconds in, shortly after Kerry's litany of McCain misjudgements. I missed out "wrong about oil paying for the war, wrong about Afghanistan - [McCain] said noone was threatening us in Afghanistan" Zing!

Can only imagine that the Democratic Caucus cheered as they watched John Kerry shut Lieberman down.  

John Kerry, as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, schooled Lieberman on Iraq, the surge, Afghanistan, and that Paris Hilton ad.

Wish that John Kerry had acted like this when he was the Democratic Nominee in 2004.  

Caveat:  Lieberman has been given notice that he is not welcome in Democratic Caucus meetings.  Hopefully with an Obama Presidency Lieberman will go.  Cannot say he was not warned

George Bush’s denial is part of an overall pattern of behavior characterized as psychopathic.  To be responsible for the deaths and suffering of so many people in Afghanistan, Iraq, secret prisons and in America itself, takes a special kind of person.  His behavior can’t be explained by cognitive dissonance or self-denial since no mentally healthy human being would be able to live in peace with himself or function normally with so much guilt weighing him down.

Whatever you think of her, even the staunchest critic will have to admit: Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well right now.  

Better than Brett Favre will ever do with the Packers in their current drama. Probably better than Ken Jennings did on Jeopardy a few years ago.

She’s playing it so well that someone (whether begrudgingly or angrily) needed to bestow accolades to her for doing so. Sentiments of scorn and disgust for the wife of Alan Greenspan need not apply in this objective and rather penetrating look at a polarizing character playing an angle just as complex as the ones on a sphere.  That sphere in this instance being the new host of Meet the Press.

Barack Obama had the whole hour to himself this Sunday on Meet The Press of course along with interim host, Tom Brokaw. So, how did he do? He didn't make any mistakes, he didn't make any announcements, he really didn't do much with this opportunity to talk to America. Tom Brokaw gave him several chances to take the bait so to speak and really say something about how he feels, but he stuck pretty close to the script he's been reading from since he became the presumptive Democratic nominee. I think the best shot he had was when Brokaw read a quote from the King of Jordan saying that fortress Israel and the Palestinian occupation was the key to Middle East stability.

Wow, was I unimpressed with Tom Brokaw when he interviewed Al Gore on Meet The Press. It reminded me of Katie Couric when she had Rush Limbaugh on the CBS evening news during her first week. Tom made extensive use of right wing think tank talking points, wingnut blogs, and yes Rush Limbaugh in the interview. Also, he did not rally seem to be listening to Gore and kept going to his notes.

Let's go straight to some oil industry hit job...

MR. BROKAW: Your audacious plan to change the way that we get electricity in this country....The reaction was pretty quick and not all of it was favorable, even from those who are aligned with you in thinking that we have to do something about climate change.  This is what Philip Sharp, president of Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank, had to say.  "At this point I don't think there's anyone in the industry who thinks that goal, as a practical matter, could be met.  This is not yet a plan for action; this is a superstretch goal."

...or "Al Gore is a pansy"

Punt!

Al Gore sits down to take some question and speak to Tom Brokaw today.
Brokaw Asks a wide range of questions, from Joe Lieberman to Climate Change.
He also talks about The New Yorker's Satire of Obama.
Gore gets a small dig in on President Bush, joking he had already won a run for the high office he just didn't serve.
Brokaw asked allot of questions but did not ask many scientific ones, which i was hoping he would in regards to burying carbon.
Just wondering what the scientific research is in burying all this carbon in this carbon capture plan. Would this not taint alot of citizens well water?
Not a bad interview all in all.

Hey everyone,
So, we at Headzup are extremely excited about Netroots Nation next week.  We'll be moderating a panel called "Progressives Go Viral: Creating and Distributing Video For Internet, iPod and Mobile Audiences".  And here is the second video we made promoting the conference and a certain Keynote Discussion between Markos & Harold Ford, Jr.  (Transcript below).  The first can be found here.

Something to chatter about on a Monday night/evening.  We know that Tom Brokaw is holding down the fort through the election on Meet the Press.

But late last week, Washington Whispers reported that Bob Costas' name has surfaced as a contender to succeed Tim Russert as permanent host.

As the NBC peacock spreads its wings even further to search for a new Meet the Press host to replace the late Tim Russert, the name of Olympics host and storied sportscaster Bob Costas has surfaced. TV executives, noting his steady and unbiased presentation of sports and news when he fills in for Larry King on CNN, say that he's got just the right temperament and approach for the Sunday newsmaker show. We are hearing this directly from somebody who knew Russert well and held top jobs in network TV news. Asked by our Liz Halloran whom he'd recommend to replace Russert, the exec said that he "wouldn't think twice—Bob Costas. He'd be terrific, spectacular."

Tom Brokaw took over the broadcast today on what is sure to be an interim basis. I suppose instead of knocking him I will just say he will take some getting used to and as I'm sure he needs a little time to get comfortable in the job. It's funny that on my last blog (pyeger) made a comment about a robotic voice that delivers the news with little or no inflection to de emotionalize the spin and just give the facts. I'd say Tom Brokaw is about as close to that as a human can get and I must say that well, it doesn't work for me. Anyway did anything happen on MTP today?

Not really, the two Western Governors from Colorado and Wyoming were on script and frankly uninteresting. The one snippet that showed a little conviction was when Gov. Ritter of Colorado said his state needed a reasonable immigration policy to keep his economy going. Brokaw did not follow up on that issue with Gov. Ritter so I will.

This morning on Meet The Press, Brian Williams announced that Tom Brokaw will be the moderator of the show through the 2008 November elections. Brian added that it was an honor to host the show this morning and said that he may be back from time to time to fill in as moderator.

While it remains unclear whether Brokaw will maintain the position through the 2008 elections I'd say that the odds are probably better than 50/50 that he stays on. What are people's thoughts about Brokaw taking the position if this is true? I think its a far better option than say, Chris Matthews for the MTP format and would be content with it. While he may not be Russert I think he can maintain the tradition of hard questioning and journalistic objectivity that Tim was able to juggle for so many years.